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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23051080">out of nowhere (take this the wrong way)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estelle/pseuds/Estelle'>Estelle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, First Dates, Getting Together, Self-Defense</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:07:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,378</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23051080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estelle/pseuds/Estelle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Khalisah gets punched a second time, Emily suggests learning self-defence together, which leads to the two women getting closer to each other than they thought.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Khalisah bint Sinan al-Jilani/Emily Wong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Spectre Requisitions 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>out of nowhere (take this the wrong way)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/boshtet/gifts">boshtet</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I love Khalisah, so I'm super happy I got the chance to write her. Hope you'll like it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Maybe you should invest in a self-defence course.” Emily’s voice sounded serious, but Khalisah was certain she could hear a hint of amusement aswell.<br/>So she didn’t deem that worthy of an answer, and simply scowled harder.<br/>Emily gently took her chin into her hand and inspected the bruise already forming there.<br/>“I’m just saying, this is the second time you got punched. Here.” She handed her a medigel. “And our job is getting more dangerous anyway.”<br/>Khalisah jerked her chin out if Emily’s grip, but did accept the medigel. It was true what she had said, this <i>was</i> the second time that Commander Shepard had punched her, and while she could even kind of understand why, if she was being very, very honest with herself, she still wouldn’t loosen her stance and stop asking the hard questions. So maybe Emily was right.<br/>“Self-defence you say?”, she finally asked, and Emily grinned.<br/>“Yeah. Could be useful, right? Good thing I already signed us up. I’ll send you the details!”<br/>With that, she walked away, and Khalisah shook her head at her retreating form.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the next evening she showed up at the address that Emily had sent her. It wasn’t in one of the worst parts of the Citadel, but it wasn’t exactly a safe area either.<br/>Emily met her with an excited grin, and Khalisah just sighed,<br/>“I feel like we’ll get mugged before we even get there”, she noted, and Emily shrugged.<br/>“We’ll consider that practice then.”<br/>Khalisah didn’t point out that they hadn’t even learned anything yet, because she was sure that Emily knew that, but sometimes there was just nothing that could stand in the way of her unwavering optimism.<br/>When they entered the gym, Khalisah noted that only human women were there, and she raised her eyebrows at Emily, who shrugged.<br/>“Figured it wouldn’t help us if they taught things catered to Turian physique, or biotics, or whatever, so I looked for human-only courses.”<br/>Khalisah had to admit that she was impressed. She hadn’t considered that perspective, and Emily had clearly done her research. <br/>The instructor was a human woman Khalisah estimated to be in her forties, and from the way she held herself clearly military, or more likely ex-military or she wouldn’t be running a self-defence gym in the one of the more questionable parts of the Citadel.<br/>After some warm up exercises, they moved on to learning how to block a punch, and after going through the motions a few times, the instructor had them partner up, and Emily immediately turned to Khalisah with a grin.<br/>She just raised her eyebrows. “Think you can handle me?”<br/>Emily’s grin didn’t fade, if anything her eyes lit up even more. “Who doesn’t like a challenge?”<br/>It turned out that Emily was good at this, maybe even better than Khalisah herself, not that she would ever admit to that, and when the instructor called for the lesson to be finished, they were both sweaty and breathing hard, and Khalisah found herself thinking that it was a good look on Emily.<br/>And if she kept admiring Emily’s form more with each passing week, noticing the her flat stomach and her firm butt and her taunt arm muscles and the way her eyes lit up when she landed a punch and the way she smiled excitedly when Khalisah got her into a hold and all the million other things about her that were worth noting, that was no one’s business but her own.</p>
<p>A few weeks later, the training turned out to be paying off. <br/>Khalisah was interviewing some C-Sec guy, who – of course – didn’t like her line of questions, and was getting rather agitated about his disapproval of her, and when she refused to let up, because that was who she was, he tried to punch her.<br/>This time though, differently from when it had happened with Shepard, she saw it coming, and quickly sidestepped, so that the guy lost his balance, and she only needed to shove him a little for him to fall flat on his face. Of course she could have used any of the other blocking techniques she had learned, but she didn’t want to do any real damage and have her reputation suffer even more.<br/>The guy sat up on the floor, blinking at her, stunned, obviously weighing his options, then probably deciding it wouldn’t be worth it, and stood up and left, not without hissing a nasty insult her way of course.<br/>Khalisah shook her head and was about to continue on her way, when she heard clapping, and an excited Emily showed up at her side.<br/>“That was brilliant! Told you the classes would be useful!”<br/>Khalisah allowed herself a small smile at that. “I guess you were right.”<br/>If possible, Emily’s smile got wider at that. “We should celebrate! There’s this new restaurant I’ve been meaning to try. Care to join me?”<br/>“I supposed I could eat.” She tried to make it sound like she didn’t really care, when in reality she knew that she couldn’t say no to Emily anyway, and welcomed the possibility of spending more time with her.</p>
<p>So that evening, Khalisah was standing in front of her mirror, deciding what to wear. Emily had given her an address and a time, because of course she had already made a reservation, and Khalisah was more nervous than she cared to admit. She kept telling herself that this was not a date, <i>of course</i> it wasn’t, just a dinner between friends, nothing more, but she still couldn’t help thinking, <i>what if</i>.<br/>She finally settled on dress pants and a nice blouse, even taking more care with her make-up than usual, and with a final nod to herself in the mirror, headed to the restaurant.<br/>Emily was already waiting outside, looking stunning in a dark blue dress, and the thought of <i>what if</i> was instantly back.<br/>Composing herself, and determined to not let Emily see how much she had taken her breath away, she offered a slight smile. “You look nice.”<br/>Emily grinned. “Thank you! You too.”<br/>Placing her hand in the crook of Khalisah’s arm, she pulled her inside, where she gave her name, and they were promptly led to a nicely set table for two.<br/>Khalisah couldn’t help but notice that the place was rather fancy, with the waiters wearing suits, the lights appropriately dimmed, and the décor rather minimalistic but still very tasteful, and she was glad that she had decided to dress up a little.<br/>Then she saw the candles on their table and the single rose in a sleek vase, and the <i>what if</i> thought firmly manifested itself again.<br/>They made idle conversation over the starters, discussing Emily’s new article, and the self-defence class, and other more trivial things, and Khalisah marvelled at how comfortable it was. She was definitely not a people person, but with Emily, this was easy.<br/>The meal passed by pleasantly, and Khalisah was finding herself liking the place. The service was good and the food was even better, but she knew that it was mostly the company that made it special to her.<br/>The waiter brought them the dessert menus, and Emily leaned forward with a sly grin and a gleam in her eyes, and when she said “You know, I might have had something different in mind for dessert”, the inviting tone of her voice absolutely did not make Khalisah blush.<br/>She looked down at the menu, then back up at Emily, who was still looking at her <i>like that</i>, and found herself asking “So this <i>is</i> a date?”<br/>It was hard to interpret Emily’s words differently, but she still had to be sure.<br/>At that, Emily looked unsure for the first time. “I… yes? Did you not want it to be?”<br/>She leaned back, the light in her eyes all but extinguished, and Khalisah absolutely couldn’t have than.<br/>Reaching over to take her hand, she confirmed “I do want that.”<br/>Emily’s smile upon hearing that lit up the whole room, and Khalisah didn’t know when she became such a romantic, but with Emily looking at her like that and the promise of <i>dessert</i> still in mind, she couldn’t say that she minded at all.</p>
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